Juvia's in Love
by Its-Crash
Summary: Juvia attends magic school. To participate in the Grand Magic Games at the end of the academic year, her group has to compete against other teams of the school. If it wasn't for Gray Fullbuster of the Fairy Tail group or the persistent Lyon Vastia from Lamia Scale, she'd be much more focused.
1. First Day

**Hey everyone and thank you for checking out my new fanfiction! I hope you'll like it:**

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Chapter 1: First Day

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_31__st__ of July_

_Dear Diary, My name is Juvia Lockser, nice to meet you. I have just received you today and never thought much about keeping a journal. But since Juvia made it into the most prestigious magic academy in all of Fiore, Juvia is sure that exciting things will happen. Juvia will make memories that Juvia wants to treasure for the rest of her life and share with you._

_Sorry about referring to myself in third person. It is a bad habit of mine that I try to unlearn. I'm doing the best I can. See, no Juvias in this paragraph._

_I've been accepted to the Phantom Lord unit by Master Jose. He is a strange man, but I'm sure he is really nice. I actually wanted to be picked by Master Makarov to join the Fairy Tail unit. You see, the magic academy is structured into different teams of students and Fairy Tail has a reputation of being the best. But I didn't make it. Apparently, they already had enough water based mages and didn't need another one._

_Tomorrow will be the first day of school and I'm really excited to meet all of my classmates and check out the competition. Different tournaments are held among the teams of each magic school and the winning group gets to attend the Grand Magic Games to represent their school. It is my dream to participate in those amazing games, and moreover, I want to be on the winning team._

_Now I need to sleep. It's already past midnight and school starts at 8 in the morning._

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Juvia closed her little notebook, gently placed it underneath her pillow and closed her eyes to sleep. Despite her efforts to relax and drift away into slumber, she had major difficulties. Wondering about her new classmates and what magic school would be like, she was too excited to really rest. At least Phantom Lord was the second best unit of Magnolia Academy. They had won the Grand Magic Games six times and were only one win behind Fairy Tail. Maybe they'd get a chance this academic year and would be tied with Fairy Tail eventually taking the lead.

The blue haired girl's eyes remained wide open throughout the entire night. When the first sunrays shone through, she checked the clock and it was still too early to get ready for school. Even so, she knew it was useless to writhe like crazy in bed. Instead, she could prepare for school, work on her magic to impress the students. They had a few training facilities on the ground floor of the Phantom Lord dormitory.

She walked down the stairs and shyly peeked into the little gym to see whether other students couldn't sleep either. Although she wouldn't necessarily describe herself as a timid person, she also enjoyed a little loneliness. Especially when it came to her magic, she preferred to stay away from people. Ever since she was young, people bullied her because she couldn't properly control her magic. It was raining all the times. They called her depressing rain girl. It still aches in her heart when she thinks about her childhood.

Inside the training halls, there were various useful things to practice with. There were dummy dolls to work on aim and precision, exercise equipment to train the body and some other stuff that Juvia couldn't really classify. Through the tall glass windows, she could see a sports field on the outside. It was ideal for athletics to improve one's condition and stamina.

The blue haired water mage decided to work with the dummies and aimed for the center of the chest area. She hit every single time and felt proud. Wiping off a little sweat that ran down her forehead, she felt invigorated although she lacked sleep.

"You're really good" a male voice commented on her skills. She was startled by it and jumped on the spot. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Geehee. My name's Gajeel!"

"It's okay. I just thought I was all alone this early in the morning" she said and turned around to see the young man standing in the door way.

"You're new, right?" he asked.

"Yes, I've passed the entrance exam at the beginning of the year and auditioned in May!" Juvia smiled and felt strangely comfortable around him. He was already like a brother to her. "You said your name's Gajeel? I'm Juvia Lockser!"

They exchanged a few words with each other and focused on training. The time in the gym passed much quicker than the time she had restlessly spent on her bed. It was already past seven and she really needed to shower before heading to school. Gajeel didn't rush the way she did. But he was a guy after all, he did not need as much time to get ready. Besides, Juvia wanted to look perfect for her first day.

She hurried up into her room, took her bag of hygiene products and raced into the girl's communal bathrooms. There were several shower stalls and to her dismay, all of them seemed to be occupied. She leaned against the sink and waited for one of them to finish. Slowly getting impatient, she thought about a way speed up the process. She was a water mage after all, water was her specialty. A mischievous smirk graced her face when all the girls shrieked inside their stalls and hurriedly jumped out. Not many people enjoy cold showers.

The choice of an appropriate stall was all hers and after a quick shower, since time was running low, she still had to do her hair and find a nice outfit. Inside her room, she ransacked her wardrobe and succumbed to vile stress. She was so close to having a nervous breakdown when the clock ticked half past seven. She looked over to an armchair in the left corner of her room and saw a white blouse, a marine blue skirt, black knee-high stockings and a tie of deep purple color. She totally forgot that they were to wear school uniforms at the academy.

As if in military training, she slipped into her uniform and threw a last glance into the mirror. Even if she had planned to curl her hair, there was no more time left. It didn't look bad like this, anyway. It was different to her usual style, and being new to the school, she could introduce a new Juvia and keep her hair straight. It wasn't all straight, a little tousled and perhaps a hint wild.

Down at the entrance to the residence hall, Gajeel waited for her and brotherly escorted her to school. She walked down the hallway and saw so many unfamiliar faces. Despite the different units, all students were taught in the same building. She walked past classroom after classroom and tried to recall all the teams the school had. Each academy was to have at least five different groups and the ones here were: Fairy Tail, Phantom Lord, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Crime Sorcière.

Gajeel was a year ahead and pointed her to the appropriate classroom. Inside she saw all unknown faces and tried to put on a smile. A white haired girl with round blue eyes sat by the window and seemed a little lost among all those people. Nonetheless, she seemed to be a girl Juvia could be friends with. The seat next to her was free until the blue haired water mage claimed it to be hers.

"Hi, I'm Juvia Lockser. I'm new here" she tried to start a conversation with the white haired girl.

"Oh… hi, my name's Lisanna Strauss. Nice to meet you" she said and smiled.

Only a minute after Juvia had entered the classroom, the teacher walked in. He handed out the schedule for the academic year. Just when the water mage had thought that she escaped normal studying, her jaw dropped open upon reading the timetable.

She had Algebra, History, Literature and Science every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. It wasn't anything like the way she had imagined magic school to be. She wanted to practice with her magic every day. Only Tuesdays and Fridays were scheduled for magical training. Lisanna explained that although they are mages, they also have to be knowledgeable in other areas. And that was how her first day of school drained the life out of her. At least there was one bright shimmer to have her heart beating like a drum.

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_1__st__ of August_

_Today was the first day and although I honestly had enough of ordinary school, I believe it is quite reasonable to teach us more than just magic. Fortunately, we'll get to train magic tomorrow. I already know that Tuesdays and Fridays were going to be my favorite days._

_Lisanna seems to be very nice. Her brother and sister are both in the Fairy Tail unit and she was a little bit upset because the principal decided to put her into Phantom Lord. At least they had made the exception to let her stay in the Fairy Tail residence hall. At first I thought it was too bad because it would have been fun to have her around after school. But now I think it might be quite advantageous._

_JUVI! At the end of the day, I was so tired and had troubles with my orientation. I bumped into some black haired guy. He looked just as tired and bore no real expression on his face. His coolness froze my heart and had it beating fast at the same time. Juvia dropped all her books and when she bowed down to pick them up, he did just the same. It was like in the movies. Everything happened in slowest motion. Our hands touched and Juvia could have squealed. The skin of his cold hands was so soft, Juvia wanted to pet it like a hamster. Juvia has never felt like this before. Even now, she can't think straight…_

_He was from Fairy Tail, Juvia could tell by the color of the tie around his neck. Orange for Fairy Tail, deep purple for Phantom Lord, green for Lamia Scale, sky blue for Blue Pegasus, and turquoise for Crime Sorcière._

_So my mission for this week: Find out his name._

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**I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. It will be a little love story about Juvia and her little love triangle! ;)**

**Feel free to fave, follow or leave a review!**


	2. The Encounter

**Welcome back to Juvia's In Love. Thank you so much for your support and the reviews I received from teamcousins and TheLittleKittyMeows! Many thanks to those who added this story to their favorites and followed it, although I had just published the first chapter (So cool of you). I hope you won't be disappointed with this one:**

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Chapter 2: The encounter

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_Not thinking of anything, I simply walked to school and looked forward to training. During the audition where I was to exposition the whole aptitude of my magical potential, the judges have said that I have impressive control over the element of water. I felt very proud. And today, I'll get to show my strength to all my fellow students. Perhaps they would like to be friends with me, because for once in my life, I won't be the Depressing Rain Girl, anymore. I could be the Cool Water Nymph, instead._

_Just strolling down the concrete to school, lost in my thoughts, I suddenly sensed a presence running up to me. He threw an arm around my shoulders and when I looked over, I thought that Gajeel got a haircut. But it wasn't him, it was the boy that I ran into yesterday. Juvia was suddenly short of air. It was so hard to breathe. Then he asked for Juvia's name and it seemed like she had completely forgotten it, although she used to refer to herself in third person perspective. The situation took all of Juvia's self-control and she could have died right then. An elevated heartbeat would be the cause of death. It was racing and thumping as if it wanted to bust out._

"_Would you like to be girlfriend" he said. I thought I misheard anything he said and stuttered. He repeated himself and said: "I mean, would you like to become my wife?"_

"Juvia thinks it might be too early, but Juvia doesn't care. She will definitely become your wife!" The blue haired girl answered loudly and caught glimpses from all the students around her. A second later, her classmates broke into chatter all the while they still kept their eyes on her. She looked around and tried to understand the situation. Nothing made sense, though. Where was her future husband? He was nowhere near. There was only a wide sports field where they were to train for the internal tournaments among the units of the school.

Lisanna stood right next to Juvia and closed in to mildly whisper into the water mage's ear: "The teacher was just explaining today's training when you suddenly screamed that you wanted to become his wife!"

Juvia gawked in terror… she had drifted off into a daydream and thought it was too real. Before her crazy stunt, she had actually thought she could have a do-over and become the popular girl. Then she just had to fall into old patterns and screw it all up. No one would think she was cool. Not after she had proposed to become someone's wife. According to Lisanna, the teacher's wife. She looked at him and inspected every detail of his appearance. It was too embarrassing. He was in his mid 40s, already had gray hair and a many wrinkles behind his grandpa glasses.

"Do you have anything else to say, Miss…" he questioned and skipped through his list to find her name.

"No, no. Juvia's alright. She's just too excited to get going!" Juvia nervously tried to talk herself out of the mess.

"Okay, you go first then" the teacher said and urged her to step forward. Too bad that she didn't know what they were supposed to do. She wasn't listening. Searching for life-saving help, she shot a glance back to Lisanna, who moved her lips. Despite her friend's efforts to aid, Juvia couldn't read lips. "Whenever you're ready!"

She examined the wide training field under the open sky and saw nothing to indicate what she was expected to do. There were no dummies to hit, no hurdles set up to jump. There was nothing except for emptiness. So perhaps she was expected to display her magic like in the audition. She looked over to the bleachers and all her fellow students sat there to watch. Even the teacher backed away to give her space. A confident smirk found its way to her lips and the water mage deliberated what spell she should perform. Water slicer might be too vicious if she used it at full power, too unimpressive if restrained and controlled. Sierra might be too extreme. Transforming into a water beast, she could easily succumb to intensive fierceness under the influence of the rush.

Water Nebula was the only workable spell with the right amount of power and control. She directed her hands up into the air and created two columns of water. Like a helix, the forceful streams reached for the sky and had all the students in awe. As soon as she was finished, Juvia waited for applause. But when the water came down like a heavy shower of rain, all the students ran off to hide under a roof to keep from getting wet. It was a little too much and the after effects of her magic caused bad moods. After she mingled with the group, again, she could even hear some students talk behind her back. "She's such a weirdo!"

They waited about fifteen minutes for the rain to clear out, before they could continue. Lisanna was up and Juvia had not had the chance to ask what her magic was. The blue haired observed her friend when she suddenly vanished from sight. Up in the air flew a little bird that suddenly transformed to a big colorful rabbit and then into a penguin. Her last transformation was a white furred tigress which moved faster than the eye could perceive. It was take-over magic and the first time that Juvia got to see someone actually change their appearance to something completely different. Plus, the white haired girl could change so fast. Her control over her magic was impressive.

Lisanna returned to her friend and whispered into her ear: "My entire family uses this kind of magic, but secretly, I'm learning another type!" Before Juvia had a chance to ask, the teacher hushed them and instructed them to observe the next candidate.

When all the students displayed their abilities, the teacher brought out different equipment to train with. Until lunch break, they were free to do as they wished as long as they employed their magic and practiced. At noon time, everyone was dismissed to head to the cafeteria and dine. Lisanna and Juvia walked together.

"So what kind of magic are you learning?" Juvia took the chance to ask.

"It's a secret. I'm not telling anyone, yet, because I'm still not good enough. You're actually the first one to know that I'm learning something. But don't tell anyone" Lisanna kept her voice down while explaining her little situation.

"Okay, I won't" Juvia promised. "Say, how well do you know the members of Fairy Tail? Your brother and sister are a part of that unit, right?"

"Well, I just know them and a few others" Lisanna tried to remember the faces. Only one came to mind, though. She giggled to herself when thinking about him. "You see, before I came to study here, I lived in another country for two years. Our parents are divorced and I always got along better with my dad. Unlike Mirajane and Elfman, my siblings, I moved with my father and they stayed with mom."

"Do you know a black haired boy?" Juvia came right to the point.

"Hm… a black haired boy… do you have a crush on him?" Lisanna cheekily wondered and pulled her new friend closer.

"It's not like that. I ran into him, yesterday. I accidently picked up one of his books and wanted to return it" Juvia lied on the spot because it was a little embarrassing to admit to it. She had only seen him once for about a minute. For most people, it was probably too little time to actually fall in love. At least Juvia thought so.

"You need to give me more details than that. Do you know how many black haired dudes run around at school? Isn't there a name inside his book?" Lisanna voiced a few more demands to identify the boy Juvia was looking for.

"No, there was no name in the book and I didn't have a good look" the water mage couldn't really remember his face anymore. She was too stunned by it and although she loved it so much, it slipped out of her mind. That was why she needed to see him, again. She needed to imprint her brain with his face. She could only remember the dark blue eyes that pierced holes through her chest, the spiky black hair that pricked her skin to get underneath and his overly attractive voice that infiltrated her mind through the ears.

"I guess I could ask around in the dorm whether someone was missing a book. What book is it?" Lisanna tried to help.

"Don't worry about it. Maybe I'll run into him again and then I'll return it" said Juvia because there was no book to begin with. She just wanted to see him again.

Mindlessly tagging along, she ran into another guy.

"Watch where you're going" he said a hint mad at her. But as soon as he laid eyes on her, he went mute.

"I'm sorry" Juvia said and looked deep into his stealthy blue eyes. He had silver hair, which was for the most part styled spikily upwards. A few strands pointed down and went slightly over the left side of his face. The guy wore a green tie indicating he was a part of Lamia Scale.

All of a sudden he placed both of his hands onto her shoulders and smiled right into her face. "Don't worry, beautiful. It's okay. You can crash into me whenever you want."

Juvia was at a loss for words. He was definitely crazy. One second he was yelling at her and the next he was telling her it was alright. She couldn't react and the next thing that reached her mind was truthfully insane.

"Is this what they call love at first sight?" he wanted to know and beat all the sense out of the water mage's brain. Only confused sounds slipped out of her mouth when Lisanna pulled her away and somewhat saved her from the maniac who just confessed his love for her. "I'm gonna make you mine!" He called after her and everybody in approximate distance could hear him. It was too embarrassing. The second day of school was too embarrassing and if every day would be as chaotic as that day, Juvia wasn't sure whether she could survive magic school.

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**Sorry if there are grammatical or spelling errors. I wanted to update as soon as possible.**

**Leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter. It would trick a smile onto my face! :D**

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	3. A Glimpse of Heaven

**Yo, Minna! I'm back with another Chapter. Enjoy (hopefully) :D**

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Chapter 3: A glimpse of heaven

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_2nd of August_

_Juvia needs to revise her opinion on Tuesdays being one of her favorite days. It was catastrophic. Juvia is so mad with the world. She did not get to see him. Instead there was this other guy. Okay, calm down Juvia. Breathe._

_No man had ever truly wanted me. Of course I've had a boyfriend before, but it took a lot of convincing to get him to go out with me. And Lisanna said that I was lucky. The silver haired guy, his name was Lyon Vastia, third most popular boy in school. Every trimester, Magnolia students have various polls and this overly confident guy was quite popular with girls. So what did he want with me? Especially why now? I already had my eyes out for someone else._

_I could scream into my pillow… and why don't I just do it now? Nobody will hear…_

_Okay, done so and feeling a little better already. Let's hope I'll see him soon, perhaps in my dreams. Good night._

_P.S. Not Lyon, the other one, the lovely one_

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Juvia placed her diary beneath her pillow and directed her gaze toward the window and looked outside into the starry sky. She blinked a few times and heard her heart beating fast. Just the thought of him made her whole body react in unfamiliar ways. She contently smiled to herself because she was convinced that she'd see him again. As a shooting star flashed past her sight, she even wished for it to boost her chances.

Early in the morning, a furious knocking on her door woke her up. Juvia attempted to ignore it and put her pillow on top of her head to block the noise. Unfortunately, it wasn't very comfortable with her nose on the hardcover of her little notebook.

"Water girl, are you in there? It's almost 8 and you're not up yet" a man's voice pierced through. _Was it him?_ She thought to herself. But reassessing the tone of it, she realized that it was just Gajeel. _What did he say? Juvia was just dreaming so vividly… of him. _"Yo, wake up, I heard you inside!"

The water mage surfaced from under the pillow and glanced at the clock to check the time: 7:48AM. "Holy crap!" She blurted out as she jumped out of bed and hastily put on her school uniform. She had forgotten to set the alarm while thinking of him. The blue-haired rushed out of her room, past Gajeel and into the bathroom to brush her teeth in speed mode. She combed her hair and accidently ripped out a thin wisp of hair. When she raced out of the bathroom and joined Gajeel on his way down the stairs, she cordially thanked him for waking her up. It was the big day after all and if she had slept through it all, she would not have gotten the chance to see him.

They were just entering the school grounds when her eyes caught a running boy opening the entrance doors. There was still a distance separating them, but she would recognize the black, spiky hair from anywhere. It was him. Her wish came true. Although she just saw the perfect back side of him, it was still like a glimpse of heaven. He was almost inside. There were still a few seconds for her to run up to him. Then she didn't really have to. He slightly turned to the side.

_I'm gonna see his face! _She thought to herself and couldn't thank fate enough for the miraculous encounter. Everything seemed to pass in slowest motion. Like a snail the head slowly tilted to let her sneak a peek of his gorgeousness. Her mouth dropped open. She lost all the color in her face and went completely pale. It was a shock. Her heart stopped beating. He didn't look anything like the boy she had imagined the past days. Perhaps it was a misconception on the first day and he didn't look any good at all. She hadn't had any sleep after all. Nonetheless, she had had enough sleep that day and the guy at the entrance door was ugly. He had pimples covering his face, a nose as big as a mountain and fat lips as if bees were continuously stinging them.

Her spirit left the body. Juvia collapsed on the floor and started crying. "Nooo" she yelped. "This can't be true!" Gajeel couldn't understand anything. He couldn't fathom why his friend, all of a sudden, broke down as if a most important person had died.

"Are you okay? What happened? We're late, you better get up" he urged her to move.

"I can't… Juvia can't live anymore. She just died on the inside…" she said all depressed and miserable. Gajeel didn't care, though. He simply picked her up, threw her around his left shoulder and carried her to the classroom.

Inside, he even lied to the teacher and said she had twisted her ankle. At least she didn't get into trouble for being late. Like a caring brother, he brought her all the way to her seat next to Lisanna. She gave her a worried stare and attended to her current state of emotional wreck.

"What happened?" The white haired asked curiously.

"The man of Juvia's dreams doesn't exist…" the blue haired monotonously answered and blankly stared at her empty desk. "I saw him again and he didn't look anything like the one I had imagined…"

"Have you ever given it some thought that the guy you just saw could be someone else?" Lisanna wondered and it was resuscitating. Juvia could feel her heart beat again and it wasn't healthy. From a slowest rhythm to a viciously fast one. She inhaled and exhaled in quickest succession and almost fainted. Her friend was right. It was not him, just a fan boy with the same hairstyle. Without even noticing, she got out of her chair with the intention to ambitiously search for the real prince immediately.

Then she took note of the eyes that were on her and everyone took the little distraction to burst into wild chatter, probably about her. She bashfully retreated to her seat next to Lisanna and lowered her head in shame. The water mage kept losing focus and all because of him. If her lack of attention kept up, she wouldn't be a good addition to their team and they would not get the chance to participate in the Grand Magic Games.

The clock almost ticked 3PM. Everyone was waiting for the bell. Soon, school was finally out. When the all too familiar and rejuvenating sound resonated, everyone rushed out of their seats to escape hell. Juvia was proud of herself and paid plenty of attention during class. Although the boy never slipped her mind, she could keep up with the lessons.

"Hey, Juvia" Lisanna, next to her, called her name. "What are planning on doing this weekend?"

"It's just Wednesday, there are two more days of school until we're free to do whatever" Juvia said because she had not had any plans for the weekend. She had always spent it alone in her room because no one actually made the effort to be so close to her.

"I was just thinking that maybe you want to have a sleepover at the Fairy Tail dorm, possibly meet your Prince Charming?" Lisanna suggested. "I have asked my sister whether she knows a good looking guy with black hair. But Fairy Tail boys aren't too popular with girls, she said. You know, they are quite rambunctious and silly. The only one she could think of was Doranbolt. He's part of the students' council and therefore quite respectable."

"Doranbolt? That's an uncommon name, as uncommon as the man of my dreams" Juvia was really confident that she was getting closer and closer to accomplish her week's mission. But she had to make sure that the boy she saw really was Doranbolt.

They were strolling around the school grounds, when a strange sensation hit Juvia like a bolt of lightning. By an invisible force, she was dragged into a land of daydreams. Drool leaked out of the corners of her parted lips. She sighed and forgot to breathe. Immobilized and awestruck, there he was. This time it was definitely him, and he looked better than her memories had stored him. The spiky black hair, those deep blue eyes and that bad boy smirk on his face. He looked too good to be a living person.

Juvia did not dare to take her eyes off him and searched for Lisanna's arm to point out his location.

"That's him, the guy over there!" Juvia said, still observing him in the company of a silly pink haired boy about the same age.

"Him?" Lisanna was surprised.

"Do you know him?" Juvia turned to her because there was one more thing more important than his looks, it was him as a person.

"No, I don't know him. But I know the other guy. His name's Natsu Dragneel" Lisanna had to disappoint Juvia. "We used to be really close when we were young and before I left with my father. He's a fire mage and very strong. Although he often picks fights with his friends, he's very loyal and kind at heart. Another funny fact about him is that he gets sick on any mean of transportation and…"

"Yeah, yeah… You sure know a lot about him. Let's go talk to them" Juvia interrupted her friend and suggested a more direct approach.

"What? No way, we can't go talk to them!" Lisanna refused to follow her friend.

"Why not? You seem to know this Natsu guy well, so let's go and talk to them" Juvia tried to convince the white haired girl.

"I can't… He doesn't know that I'm back and I don't want him to!" The take-over mage appeared to have changed in personality. Suddenly, she was very shy and introverted.

"Don't be ridiculous, now is the time to get back in the game. I won't lose him, not again" although Juvia was a water mage, she burned with fire of passion and commitment.

"But what if he doesn't remember me? I didn't even say goodbye to him. What if he has a girlfriend now and doesn't care about me?" Lisanna expressed her worries.

Then, out of the blue, a blond girl joined them. She was very pretty and shone as bright as the sun. Placing her hand on Gray's shoulder, he turned to smile at her. The blonde asked him something and all three of them cheerfully laughed.

"Who the hell is that?"

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**That's the third chapter. How will Lucy complicate things for Juvia and Gray? I hope you want to know. Coming chapters will focus on that and how Juvia tries to get closer to Gray. Lyon will also make appearances.**

**Thanks to ****TheLittleKittyMeows**** for the nice reviews! :D Cupcake for you.**

**Thanks to IndigoHailstorm, Simlop, The Golden Witch, mgaa, moongirl45634, teamcousins and of course TheLittleKittyMeows for following. It makes me happy to know that you're interested in the story.**


	4. Butterflies

Chapter 4: Butterflies

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Juvia was overly agitated by the sight of one particular blond girl. That girl stood awfully close to her prince and no way in hell could she let her love rival win him over. Led by subconscious, slightly aggressive impulses, the water mage stomped like a giant and headed straight at them. But as soon as the black haired boy turned to look her way, Juvia's knees went soft as jell-o and she caved in.

Without paying any further attention to her, the three of them continued walking and talked about a camping trip over the weekend. Juvia's heart broke into thousand tiny pieces as she reached out her arm and cried. "My love, don't go…"

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_3rd of August_

_I'm dying, I'm really dying. My heart hurts so badly. I fell to the ground and many students walking past looked at me with puzzled eyes. As if they had never seen a broken hearted girl, I felt like the attraction of the day. It was all her fault. She was evil, blond, pretty and evil. That blonde girl, I want her to drop into a deep, deep well and then I'd fill it up with water. No one will find her down there. Just picturing the scene mended my heart a little._

_At least I had one loyal friend. Bless her heart for sticking to me. Lisanna Strauss. I think she likes the pink haired guy._

_But my heart, it hurts… I can't sleep with so much pain._

_Right after I came home, I raced up to my room and locked myself up. I didn't even have dinner, yet. So what time is it now? It's 2AM and I really should eat something._

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Juvia looked into the mirror the following morning and inspected the massive rings beneath her eyes. It was a bad week, two days without sleep. She couldn't go to school like this. What if she ran into him and he'd see her so messed up. A walking corpse was definitely not a nice sight to see. But she had to go, she had to see him. Getting ready for school, Gajeel already waited for her at the entrance.

"Good morning, Gajeel. How are you?" she asked him.

"Good morning to you water girl. What happened to your eyes? Couldn't sleep?" he pointed out and if he hadn't been like a brother to her, she would have water sliced him to tiny bits. It was very rude to call a girl ugly, although he didn't explicitly say that. He just implied it.

"Don't wanna talk, just wanna go to school and do whatever" Juvia muttered monotonously.

At school, Lisanna already sat in her seat, a strange book on her desk. Juvia waddled over and unwomanly crashed down on the chair. Her head hung loosely and she could have fallen asleep right then, if it wasn't for Lisanna showing her the book.

"It's my sister's yearbook. I borrowed it from her so we can find your guy" the white haired mage said. She was an angel.

Juvia's mouth was watering while she tried to open the book. The lack of sleep, nonetheless, rendered her motion control clumsy to a point of disabled. Her friend took note and helped her open the book to the first page. There were dozens of signatures and little messages to Mirajane. Lisanna's sister must be very popular.

When they got to the directory of all the students of Magnolia Academy, Juvia impatiently browsed through all the pages twice. She saw Natsu Dragneel, the pink haired boy. There was also Doranbolt. Though he wasn't the one. The man of her dreams was nowhere to be found. The stupid blonde was also faceless in last year's book. It was outdated. On another page, she saw 3rd place of most popular guys: Lyon Vastia. Out of curiosity she checked the winner and runner-up. With a little, or perhaps a ton of, childish hopes to see her boy on the appropriate pages, Juvia just had to be disappointed.

1st place was some dude with blue hair and a strange tattoo on the right side of his face. It was Crime Sorcière's Siegrain Fernandes. Lisanna said that he was the student body president and Jellal Fernandes' twin brother. Rational reasoning would place the other one second, but upon turning a page, there was a guy from Blue Pegasus. Neither of them looked remotely as good as the dark haired boy.

"He's not in there…" Juvia complained. "And how come one of the twin brothers is first place and the other one not even in the top three?"

"Well, my sister said that Jellal is really timid and has only eyes for some girl of Fairy Tail. I think her name was Erza" Lisanna explained.

"Oh yeah, there is an Erza Scarlet on third place of most popular girls. Jenny from Blue Pegasus is second and Mirajane Strauss is number one… wait? Your sister is number one?" Juvia glanced over to her friend and inspected the picture once more. "You look a lot alike, I bet you're going to be the new queen, this year. I mean you're younger, right?"

"I don't know. Everybody loves Mira. I'm just the little sister…" she said. "I'm sorry he's not in there. Maybe there's another way to identify him. I have looked for the blond girl yesterday!"

"Why would you do something like that? She's our enemy!" Juvia reacted instantly.

"What's the saying? Keep your enemies close? I wanted to find her to check whether we could go to the camping trip with them. This could be our chance!"

The white haired girl was cunning like a fox. But they had to postpone their little chat until class was over. The teacher entered and hushed everyone.

During lunch break, they didn't waste time in the cafeteria and searched for the blonde or any of the trio for that matter. Despite their efforts, they just couldn't find them. Instead, they ran into someone else.

"This is an encounter set up by fate! I knew that I will see you again" Lyon exaggerated and cast a butterfly flying towards her. It was made of ice and somehow, she thought it was pretty cool. He was a water based mage. Ice was water in its solid form. Before she could take the thought any further, she shook her head. Besides, all the evil glares that followed her as soon as Lyon expressed his crazy feelings were too much to handle. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"No" she replied not giving it much thought. And she didn't have to think about it. Her heart belonged to someone else. No butterfly made of ice could convince her otherwise.

"You're so cold-hearted. It's just another sign of fate. We belong together" he insisted and threw his arm around her shoulders. "Let me take you out for lunch and we'll get to know each other!"

Juvia couldn't escape his grasp and had to follow. Lisanna walked right beside her and did nothing to save her friend. Maybe she wasn't that good of a friend after all.

* * *

_4th of August_

_I have absolutely no idea what this guy's thinking. I said no. My heart belonged to someone else and yet, he insisted on courting me. I didn't get to see my love. Perhaps it was due to the fact that lunch break was slightly shifted for every unit. As Lyon had explained, there were too many students at school to let them all have lunch break at the same time. At least he had been lucky enough that Lamia Scale gets to go to lunch shortly after Phantom Lord is dismissed. Moreover, Lisanna had texted her sister to ask when they had lunch and she was in the middle of magical training._

_So what I've learned today. Fairy Tail trains on Thursdays. I was sort of getting closer to knowing their schedule and with that knowledge I could undoubtedly step up my game and find him._

_Meanwhile, I have to wait for Lisanna to find the blonde to set up our little camping trip._

_Oh wait a sec… my phone's ringing._

_JUVI! I just heard the biggest news from my bestest of best friends. The blond girl's name is Lucy and we're allowed to join them on their camping trip. And it's not where my excitement ends. Juvia's melting away. Juvia can literally feel the water in her body boiling. His name is… drumroll… my my, it's such a perfect name… GRAY FULLBUSTER 3 3 3_

_Tonight, I think, I'll get to sleep just fine._

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**Thank you so much for your ongoing support. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one when Juvia will get closer to meeting Gray.**_  
_

**Leave a review to let me know what you think or any ideas you have for further chapters! :D**


	5. Competition

Chapter 5: Competition

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Gray Fullbuster, a name that kept replaying in her mind like a favorite song. In the morning before school, Juvia had slept really well and was looking forward to the camping trip with Lisanna and Gray Fullbuster and probably Natsu and probably Lucy whom she didn't want with. The blue haired girl had absolutely no idea what to pack for the trip. She deliberated whether she needed a tent and a sleeping bag. Just as that thought strolled through her mind, she got the idea on sharing a sleeping bag with Gray. Maybe if she 'forgot' her sleeping bag, she could sneak under his blanket for the night.

With a small suitcase full of random stuff that she might need, she headed to school to meet up with her friend. At least it was Friday and there were not going to be boring classes. Training would keep her mind off Gray for a while until after school. Since it was a long trip to the woods, they were going to leave right after school. It was Juvia's first time doing something like that. No one had ever asked her to join them because they were afraid of rain. Even after she learned how to control her powers, they kept associating her with the unpleasant event of falling water. So it was refreshing to be enrolled at Magnolia Academy.

"I'm not going" Lisanna said casually and robbed her friend of vital air.

"WHAT? WHY?" Juvia insisted to know and voiced her rattled state much louder than her seemingly timid personality would allow.

"You know, I don't know any of them except for Natsu and somehow I'm really afraid to see him. I didn't tell him goodbye when I left with my father. Mirajane said he had been quite upset…" the white haired girl explained her fears of meeting her childhood friend again.

"You can't let me go alone. You're my friend and I need you with me!" Juvia took Lisanna's hands and begged for her to come with her. When the teacher hushed all of them to make an announcement, Juvia had not finished convincing her friend. But she took the time to think of ways to change her friend's mind.

The instructor announced the first tournament among the units of the academy which was going to happen in two weeks. It took most of them by surprise because there was not much time to practice and train. Although many of her fellow students wanted to know what they would have to do during the competition, the instructor could not disclose any information. Instead, he encouraged all of them to do their best and use every free minute to train in order to win the internal tournaments and win the ticket to the Grand Magic Games.

Everybody was super ambitious and used every spare minute to train. Lisanna, nonetheless, didn't seem too excited about training. Unlike all the other students, she just meditated and concentrated to increase her magic power. Being a good friend, Juvia took a little break to chat with her.

"What's wrong? You're not transforming into different shapes and animals" she pointed out her observations.

"I'm focusing on my new magic" Lisanna quickly answered and still sat cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed.

"Which is?" Juvia curiously inquired.

"I won't tell or show anyone until the tournament. Of course I had told the instructor about it and asked for his opinion. He thinks that I have potential and should focus on my new magic instead of using Animal Soul" she made clear that it was going to be a surprise. "Besides, Fairy Tail has two Take-Over Mages. If I were to compete against them, I wouldn't have much of a chance. Mira has magical control beyond imagination and Elfman is very strong."

Juvia also decided to meditate and tap into her potential. It was a good way to understand the magic within their bodies and it helped with control and power.

During lunch, Juvia tried to convince Lisanna again. This time she came with several arguments. "Do you plan on avoiding him forever? At some point you will run into him. And the longer you hide from him, the worse it'll be to explain. This is the perfect opportunity to make up with him. You'll have plenty of time to talk, I'm busy with Gray and Lucy can go swim in the lake or whatever. I don't want Lucy to take away your man while I'm with Gray, you know!"

"But I have no stuff with me and we'll leave right after school…" Lisanna argued her way out.

"You're lucky that I didn't know what to bring. I have enough clothes for a week and as to sleeping bags and tents, we'll mingle with the boys!"

"Juvia, you're crazy. I think Lucy said she had a very big tent for us girls. All we had to bring was us and whatever we needed" the white haired girl said.

"Are you coming then?" Juvia was super excited to hear a little positivity from her friend.

"I guess I am. Can't leave you alone with them, can I?" she smiled and agreed to join them.

Juvia was so happy about it and even happier that she didn't run into Lyon during lunch break. She could solely focus on Gray Fullbuster and a few more hours until they'd ignite the fire of their love. Lyon and his ice magic would melt down the drain. It made her wonder what kind of magic Gray used. She remembered that Lisanna told her that Natsu was a fire mage. Maybe her Gray was also a fire mage explaining their friendship. Moreover, fire and water was like the opposite and people say: opposites attract.

School was finally over and they were to meet Lucy and the guys in front of the school building. Juvia waited impatiently and kept asking Lisanna when they'd show up. She kept painting horror scenarios inside her mind. What if Lucy tricked them into believing they could join when all along she just wanted them to wait there while she snagged away her Gray?

"Lisanna" a female voice called for Juvia's friend. They turned around and met a smiling blonde with one guy on her coat-tails. It was him. To Juvia he looked so amazingly glistening that she went completely dry. Being a water mage that was something not many could achieve. He must be a fire mage spouting flames to set her passion on blazing fire to let everyone know how much they loved each other.

"Lucy! This is my friend Juvia Lockser. She will join us" Lisanna said and searched for Natsu. "Um… where's Natsu?"

"Oh, he got into trouble and is currently having a serious talk with our teacher. He's such a rowdy, we better exclude him from the trip" Lucy winked and joked about the pink haired mage. "But poor Gray, alone with three girls?"

Lisanna and Lucy laughed about the joke. Juvia, nonetheless, saw right through the blonde. She had poked Gray's soft cheek while articulating her last thoughts and that was too much body contact for Juvia's taste. Lucy must be the stupid water mage that Fairy Tail recruited instead of her. At the tournament, they were going to see who the better mage was.

"So Juvia, you're new, too, right? Lisanna told me a little bit about you. I'm Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you" the blonde said and stretched out a hand to friendly shake. Juvia wouldn't buy her nice act, though. Lucy was evil and she'd never shake the hands of evil witches.

"Juvia, be nice" Lisanna tried to get her friend to shake hands. "She's a little shy around new people."

"What a drag… just like Natsu" Gray said. It flipped a switch inside Juvia's brain.

_A drag… he said that Juvia's a drag? No, no, no… he can't be serious._

All of a sudden, Juvia took Lucy's hand and shook it with a beaming smile.

"Sorry about Juvia's rude behavior before. It's really nice to meet you. Let's be best friends, okay?" Lisanna rolled her eyes upon seeing Juvia transform to a complete other person. And she had thought that she was the Take-Over mage.

When Natsu finally arrived, he didn't take note of Lisanna at first. On second look, however, he noticed her and stared as if he saw a ghost. He kept staring and staring until he stuttered her name: "Lisanna? When did you come back?"

"Last week" she said trying to sound unaffected.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Natsu asked.

"You know each other?" Lucy stepped in and wondered.

"Yeah, we used to live in the same neighborhood" was Lisanna's answer.

"That's why you asked for him, earlier. I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do. We'll head back to my place first and then my chauffeur will take us to the camping site!"

_Wait a minute, did she just say chauffeur? What is that? _Juvia thought to herself while she tried her hardest to start a conversation with Gray. He, nonetheless, didn't seem to recognize her presence. It was too infuriating. And when Lucy joined them so Natsu and Lisanna could catch up, the picture got a little too crowded. The blonde was definitely after her boy and she had to do something.

When they all sighted the luxurious limousine in front of them, Juvia lost all her hopes. How was she going to keep up with Lucy Heartfilia? The blonde princess was filthy rich. Juvia could see her Gray slip away from between her fingers into the arms of that annoying girl.

_"Gray, I love you" Lucy said and wanted to feel his warmth. "Please wrap your strong arms around me!_

_"I can't. These arms are only allowed to hug Juvia" Gray refused to love Lucy._

_"But Gray, I'm the one for you" the blonde tried to change his mind._

_Was this scenario just a fantasy? Juvia couldn't let Lucy have him. He belonged to Juvia no matter what. Just you see love rival. Juvia's going to take you down and win this game of love._

_My mission for the camping trip: Eliminate the competition!_

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**Oi, everyone! I Hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one. They will be going on a camping trip (duh) and a lot happens there :D**


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